On the heels of Yahoo’s announced downsizing comes news that videogame maker Electronic Arts will cut its staff by six percent.  The move is being down to cut costs according to the Associated Press.
EA is best known for its popular sports franchise games, Madden NFL Football and Tiger Woods Golf. The company has also recently released the best-selling Spore.
However, despite seeing better-than-predicted revenues in the third quarter, EA is facing higher than expected development costs for their new titles.
“Considering the slowdown at retail we’ve seen in October, we are cautious in the short term,” said John Riccitiello, chief executive, in a statement. “Longer term, we are very bullish on the game sector overall and on EA in particular.”
The company lost $310 million, or 97 cents per share, in the quarter, the second in its fiscal year. That was worse than the loss of $195 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales jumped 40% to $894 million.
One factor impacting EA’s more conservative outlook for the next few months is the delay of a Harry Potter based game. The game was supposed to have been released with the new movie.  When Warner Brothers delayed the film, EA was forced to push back the game’s release date.
The job cuts will amount to between 500 to 600 positions across all functions and locations, EA said. While some of these jobs are open, most will involve layoffs.
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